As many craft brewers strive for the highest ABV possible ... with some brands reaching for the End of History (I'm looking at you, Brew Dog) with an ABV of 55% and delivered in the skins of roadkill (no, I am not kidding) ... Jeff Stevens of Wellbeing decided to go a different way.

The devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana simply boggle the mind. To understand the scope of devastation in Texas:

Shown superimposed on a map of Colorado:

From firsthand reports the waters in and around Houston are completely polluted. Potable water is scarce (if available at all). The response? Brewers across the nation are stepping up and switching production of their canning lines to can water for the relief of the victims of Harvey.

It has been our observation that many craft breweries are pretty savvy about using social media to market their breweries. Perhaps that is a self-selecting collection. Those who are good at it survive; those who aren't, well, don't.

Inbound marketing is more than just social media. Modern marketing is all about education and there is a limit to the amount of education available in 140 characters. Let's call it a bandwidth problem.

The main driver of an inbound strategy will be your blog. You may be considering writing a blog (or having one written for you) ... or you may have tried to launch one and gotten bogged down. In any case, you will be interested in this.

We are looking for the best blogs written by craft brewers (let's use the usual definition ... the one that excludes AB InBev, et al). They should be written by the craft brewery staff, but that can sometimes be difficult to ascertain.

I had a fascinating conversation with Dennis Wehrmann of Franconia Brewinga few days ago. As part of a wide ranging discussion he touched on a key issue that affects all craft brewers: the growth of the market and the growth of the craft beer segment within that market.

The key question seems to be: how do we grow the group of customers on the other side of the tap - the beer consumer. A follow-on consideration is how to do so not at the expense of behemoth beer - which is just changing how the pie is divided - but rather how to do so by increasing the number of beer consumers - making the pie bigger.

Of course, many craft breweries are started by head/assistant brewers or other former employees of other craft breweries - the hallmark of a healthy industry, by the way.

But many breweries seem to be started these days by people who have tired of the grind, grind, grind of corporate life ... and looking for an outlet for their creative side ... and nurturing their love of great beer ... and they connect the obvious dots.

The entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in these ... and I'll bet they work harder at brewing than ever. (Some retirement destination, eh?)

Despite not having the same visibility as their CA or CO brothers, Texas brewers are quickly achieving notoriety in their own right (high five, Austin!). Texas brewers have honed their skills over the last decade, infusing their Texan-individualism as well as the rugged determination of our land into their beers.

Iconic BMS is dedicated to helping you make your brewery Iconic ... by providing the techniques and technology to improve your operational excellence.

Your brewery is focused, as it should be, on your beer and your customers. The "business of the brewery" is that set of activities common to all businesses that make your organization effective and efficient. Improvements in the "business of the brewery" help you improve by freeing resources to focus on what is most important - the Customer ... and the beer!

This blog will cover more than just techniques and technology, though. Included will be all manner of information that takes a brewery from fantastic to Iconic.